Fog Lights

Tallon

Oh no, not this thread again :P (Not really)

Was on the way down the M50 today and there were a lot of people with their rear fogs on. (Annoying as hell when they are super bright)

But it had me thinking about fog light placement!

I was behind a 206 for a while, and the light was at the bottom, on the bumper, and made a lot of sense, then I was behind a muppet in an Octavia, and it was Right beside the brake light (the one working brake light) so everytime she hit the brake, I literally couldn't see it! Too dangerous to be behind her, so I changed lanes


My yoke has two, very distinctive between each brake light and while you can deffo see it, I think maybe they're too high for blinding drivers


So what are your opinions? What's the best / worst car for them and where is the best / worst place to have them?

renofan

Honestly I think cars in Ireland shouldn't have rear fogs as 99.999999% haven't a clue how to use them. "Ah rain, must turn on my rear fogs" or "Ah a tiny little wee bit of wispy foggy stuff....I must turn on my rear fogs". For the majority of the time rear fogs are not needed and end up blinding the drivers behind, just like I was stuck behind a woman in a citroen c3 this morning. Why does a car that small need two massive, blinding rear fogs anyways!

MidlandsM

renofan wrote: »

Why does a car that small need two massive, blinding rear fogs anyways!

because 5 people might be inside it, in the fog, on a foggy motorway.............like any other car regardless of its size??

renofan

MidlandsM wrote: »

because 5 people might be inside it, in the fog, on a foggy motorway.............like any other car regardless of its size??

I was being sarcastic.

demanufactured

A lot of people don't even know they have them.

In fact a lot of people don't learn what the switches on the dash/console do and just hit random switchs till what they want comes on.

jsd1004

renofan wrote: »

Honestly I think cars in Ireland shouldn't have rear fogs as 99.999999% haven't a clue how to use them. "Ah rain, must turn on my rear fogs" or "Ah a tiny little wee bit of wispy foggy stuff....I must turn on my rear fogs". For the majority of the time rear fogs are not needed and end up blinding the drivers behind, just like I was stuck behind a woman in a citroen c3 this morning. Why does a car that small need two massive, blinding rear fogs anyways!

Front fogs are the same. Muppets driving around with them on all the time. They are FOG lights. Some real spanners drive at night with their headlamps off and foglights on.

GarH

renofan wrote: »

"Ah rain, must turn on my rear fogs" or "Ah a tiny little wee bit of wispy foggy stuff....I must turn on my rear fogs".

Ah. Makes my car look cooler. Must switch them on even in daytime.

I wish I had a 1000 candle power lamp I could shine out my back window when these muppets come up behind me with fog lights on.
I'd have one of those scrolling LED signs with a countdown: Please turn off your foglamps. You have 5....4.....3....2.....1...seconds to comply.
Then...bam....how do you like it f**khead?

Tallon

jsd1004 wrote: »

Front fogs are the same. Muppets driving around with them on all the time. They are FOG lights. Some real spanners drive at night with their headlamps off and foglights on.

Can we not turn it into 'that thread' please!

I want peoples opinions on fog light placement and necessity!

It BeeMee

The lower the better - I think the Focus has it about right.

I notice a lot of cars have 2 rear fogs. I thought that only 1 is allowed?

Tallon

OSI wrote: »

Looking at the above pic, the Lexus one's are just as bad as the VAG ones. They're just too high up.

Totally agree, as I said in the OP

jsd1004

Tallon wrote: »

Can we not turn it into 'that thread' please!

I want peoples opinions on fog light placement and necessity!

I dont see your point. Fog lights are a safety item to be used in the event of fog or seriously reduced visibility. They are placed in the line of sight at the rear for that exact purpose..so they can be easily seen in poor visibility. Same for the front..low and bright so they cut the glare back from fog and falling snow. People using fog lights illegally cause the problems and the law should be enforced with regard to same.

GarH

Aye. Sorry about that.

Rear foglights shouldnt be anywhere near the light clusters (especially the brake lights)
anywhere below bumper level seems like the best place imo.

Also there should be an automatic 'off switch' for fog lamps.
Not sure about other cars, but mine has separate switches for foglights, which are independant from the main lights. So the foglights are off everytime the ignition is switched on (even if they were on prior). Probably not putting this into words properly.
But if I forget to switch off foglights, I won't have to worry about this the next time I start the engine.

Mycroft H

It BeeMee wrote: »

The lower the better - I think the Focus has it about right.

I notice a lot of cars have 2 rear fogs. I thought that only 1 is allowed?

Thought that too. My Clio only has the one. And any other car I can think of

CiniO

Tallon wrote: »

Oh no, not this thread again :P (Not really)

Was on the way down the M50 today and there were a lot of people with their rear fogs on. (Annoying as hell when they are super bright)

But it had me thinking about fog light placement!

I was behind a 206 for a while, and the light was at the bottom, on the bumper, and made a lot of sense, then I was behind a muppet in an Octavia, and it was Right beside the brake light (the one working brake light) so everytime she hit the brake, I literally couldn't see it! Too dangerous to be behind her, so I changed lanes


My yoke has two, very distinctive between each brake light and while you can deffo see it, I think maybe they're too high for blinding drivers


So what are your opinions? What's the best ]

Rear foglights are designed to be used in real dense fog, andmost countries (at least ie Eu) limist its usage to times when visibility falls below 50m.
I thknk that placement in 206 at the bottom is not the greatest, as when you are too close you just cannot see it. (and in real dense fog you might not be able to see it before you are couple metres behind the car)

corktina

i think it's a legal requirement for rear fogs to be separate from the other red lights isn't it? I thought it was anyway.

Tallon

jsd1004 wrote: »

I dont see your point. Fog lights are a safety item to be used in the event of fog or seriously reduced visibility. They are placed in the line of sight at the rear for that exact purpose..so they can be easily seen in poor visibility. Same for the front..low and bright so they cut the glare back from fog and falling snow. People using fog lights illegally cause the problems and the law should be enforced with regard to same.

So you DO see my point!

I'm seeing if people agree that they should be low (Like on the 206) and not In-your-face like the Is200 or beside an important light like on the Octavia

What happened to the old bolt on, under the bumper ones?

Viper_JB

I always thought the placement of the rear fog light on the Rx8 was good, really low and noticable....

Tallon

GarH wrote: »

Aye. Sorry about that.

Rear foglights shouldnt be anywhere near the light clusters (especially the brake lights)
anywhere below bumper level seems like the best place imo.

Also there should be an automatic 'off switch' for fog lamps.
Not sure about other cars, but mine has separate switches for foglights, which are independant from the main lights. So the foglights are off everytime the ignition is switched on (even if they were on prior). Probably not putting this into words properly.
But if I forget to switch off foglights, I won't have to worry about this the next time I start the engine.

Totally agree! The brake light on the octavia was completely useless while the fog was on, especially since her other one was out!

My corolla fog light used to go off after X amount of time itself!

The problem with my journey is, I come from Kildare to Dublin, and it's heavy fog in Kildare, then you get to Dublin and it's so built up and busy that the lights are no longer needed. But people don't even notice they have them on!

jsd1004

Tallon wrote: »

So you DO see my point!

I'm seeing if people agree that they should be low (Like on the 206) and not In-your-face like the Is200 or beside an important light like on the Octavia

What happened to the old bolt on, under the bumper ones?

:rolleyes:Front foglights need to be low and bright

An artic driver has a better chance of seeing lights the higher up they are.

Tallon

jsd1004 wrote: »

:rolleyes:Front foglights need to be low and bright

An artic driver has a better chance of seeing lights the higher up they are.

Why not back one's? What's the difference?

Mycroft H

Tallon wrote: »

What happened to the old bolt on, under the bumper ones?

Generally not OEM for the European market, usually an after fit for an imported car here.

SCOOP 64

Rear fog lights on very annoying (blinding), but people with front ones on never bothered me, if it lights up better on dark lanes, dont see the problem.

TrailerBob

Our laws only have a requirement for one rear foglight, so in many cases that's what manufacturers provide... It's cheaper. To be honest, if conditions are bad enough, the placement of the lamp has little effect, once the thing is on then you should see it. Having it 6 inches lower on the car will not mean you don't see it until you are right behind it, as CiniO suggests. That means its foggy.. Very foggy.


More annoying for me is when they are not used. I nearly rear ended a sprinter van last year with one dim tail light on in dense fog... And the van was white.

coolisin

I was thinking the same tallon, the ones that stood out the best on my trip this morning were land rover discovery(more places to have them installed I guess) blinding when behind them, could still make out break lights and the Hyundai coupe, two very bright lights in dense fog.

My car has them like the Lexus only one in the boot lid.

It's more a problem when they are in your face they are silly and too bright, but from a bit of a distance they can easily be distinguished.

Turn them off when the person is 10ft from your bumper in slow moving traffic.

The likes of the 206 and Rx8 have a good placement as you can see the difference straight away.

renofan

GarH wrote: »

Aye. Sorry about that.

Rear foglights shouldnt be anywhere near the light clusters (especially the brake lights)
anywhere below bumper level seems like the best place imo.

Also there should be an automatic 'off switch' for fog lamps.
Not sure about other cars, but mine has separate switches for foglights, which are independant from the main lights. So the foglights are off everytime the ignition is switched on (even if they were on prior). Probably not putting this into words properly.
But if I forget to switch off foglights, I won't have to worry about this the next time I start the engine.

My wife's focus II has the foglight on the bottom of the bumper, best place for it. Also if you have the front and rears on, when you turn off the lights it'll turn these off too so they are off the next time you hop into the car. All cars should be like this!

barryfitz

IMO they should be placed away from the regular light cluster. Preferably a bit lower. Was in a similar situation to the OP the other day, behind a car with one working brake light immediately beside her fog light and it was almost impossible to see her brake light come on. Moved lane also.

just realised this morning that the last car I bought has no fog light at all. It was an import (i didnt import it).
Think that makes me a lawbreaker

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